Overnight Cruise: Silver Glen and Salt Springs (up the St. John’s River)

Trip Captains:  Mac and Karen Holley

If you go by boat, we suggest at least three nights and two full days because it’s a bit of a haul to get there.  Estimate 6-7 hours for big boats travelling 20-22 knots. So Thursday and Sunday would be largely travel days.

Part of the intrigue to that area is going up into the springs (Silver Glen and Salt Springs) and a tour of the Oklawaha River.  The big boats can’t get in there, so I we plan to rent a couple of pontoon boats for that part, or if we have some others coming down in smaller boats (3 ft or less draft), they could give the others a ride.

Accommodations:

Renegades indicated they are installing finger docks on all four of their big boat slips.  Currently, only one of the large boat slips is next to a dock where the boat riders can exit from the side of the boat.  For the other three large boat slips, they currently have pilings but boats have to pull in bow or stern first and there is quite a step up to the dock from a typical swim platform level or step down from a bow – so not really functional for most boaters (accept for us young bucks).  With the new finger docks, that will solve that problem making all four slips very usable. The general manager assured me that the new finger docks would be installed before October.

There are also 15 motel rooms at Porky’s Lodge Bar and Grill which is only a 5 minute drive from Renegades or about a 10 minute boat ride on the river.  This would give us good availability for those who want to drive down and / or not stay on their boat.  Porky’s can accommodate 2 large boats on their dock as well.

If we have more than 6 large boats interested in the trip, for those large boats with dinghies, they can anchor off Renegades and dinghy in.  Both Renegades and Porky’s cater to smaller boats with 7 ft or less beams (boats up to 22-23 feet.  Both have covered slips that folks can reserve for the smaller boats.

If anyone wants to trailer their boat down versus the long ride by water, Renegades has a boat ramp and trailer storage for those staying there, and there is a great public ramp very close to Porky’s and they have places to store trailers for those staying there.

Dining and entertainment:

Both Renegades and Porky’s have good restaurants.  Renegades tiki bar is fantastic and has great live music on Thursday through Sunday.  Porky’s has a good indoor bar as well as tables on an outside deck overlooking the river.